Haircuts for Homeless

Sometimes, the most effective way to help someone in need is to make them feel good about themselves. One salon in Boston has taken that idea to heart.

On one Monday a month for most of the past year, stylists open the doors at the Green Tangerine Salon & Spa at the Sheraton Hotel in Boston to do some good. Working in partnership with The Women’s Lunch place, a local outreach center, these hair pros provide free haircuts to local homeless women. Depending on the Monday, Green Tangerine will tend to anywhere from a few heads of hair up to about 25.

Louise Rusk, the salon director, has noticed that for these women, feeling like you look good can make an enormous difference. “[Having their hair done] gives them the feeling that somebody cares, that they look pretty, and that they matter,” she told Refinery29 by phone. “It’s so important because that makes them walk taller and feel good. They walk out of the salon differently than they walk into the salon.”